Box Office Results: Two New Movies Fail to Knock Down The LEGO Movie Dominator

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

Two new movies opened in wide release on Friday. Not that anyone would notice as the blockbuster smash The LEGO Movie (Warner Bros.) ran rampant over the box office for a third week in a row, this time grossing two-and-a-half times the amount brought in by the #2 movie. Most of the movies that opened over the extended dual holiday weekend last week also took a massive drop this week, which meant that the two new movies could venture into second and third place despite weak showings.

The LEGO Movie easily won the weekend with $31.4 million, down 37% from the holiday weekend as it has achieved $183 million total after three weekends in theaters. Warner Bros. has already set a plum Memorial Day release date of May 26, 2017 for the sequel to the insanely successful animated movie.

But back to those two new movies that no one seemed to care about. Kevin Costner continued his run at the comeback trail by starring in the Luc Besson-McG collaboration with Amber Heard and Hailee Steinfeld. Although Costner had 3 Days to Kill, his first starring role in some time had to settle for second place with $12.3 million in 2,872 theaters. Produced at a fairly low budget of $28 million, it averaged $4,283 per theater.

Paul W.S. Anderson’s attempt to break away from the “Resident Evil” franchise with the 3D historic epic with Pompeii (TriStar Pictures/Sony) was met with very little interest from moviegoers. Starring Kit Harrington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Browning, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica Lucas, Jared Harris and Kiefer Sutherland–even Anderson’s wife Milla Jovovish (once married to Luc Besson) was smart enough not to star in this one–the epic film that reportedly cost $80 million brought in just $10 million in 2,658 theaters or $3,762 per venues.

Various other Sony divisions filled out the next three slots, although their two movies from last weekend took a dive with the sci-fi action remake RoboCop (MGM/Sony), holding up the best despite dropping 57% from its opening weekend. It took fourth place with $9.4 million over the weekend, bringing its domestic total to $43.6 million. Like most movies, it’s doing better internationally where it brought in another $17.7 million this weekend to bring its worldwide total to $100 million.

Dropping one notch to fifth place, George Clooney’s WWII drama The Monuments Men (Sony) added another $8.1 million to its total gross of $58 million.

The romantic comedy remake About Last Night (Sony/Screen Gems) took a massive nosedive without the boost of Valentine’s Day, dropping 71% to $7.4 million, down to 6th place from its impressive opening weekend beating RoboCop for second place. So far, it’s grossed $38.1 million.

The ubiquitous Kevin Hart also starred in the action-comedy Ride Along (Universal) with Ice Cube, which continued to do well with another $4.7 million in its sixth weekend, for a total of $123.2 million.

Walt Disney’s unstoppable animated blockbuster musical Frozen just won’t leave the Top 10 despite opening three months ago! It remained in eighth place with $4.4 million, down 30% from the holiday weekend, with a whopping domestic total gross of $384 million.

Globally, the animated hit is about $20 million away from becoming one of those rare blockbusters that hits a billion dollars worldwide, as it’s currently at $980 million with nearly $600 million of that coming from overseas. The movie’s popular soundtrack is also gunning after Titanic‘s record for most weeks at #1 for a soundtrack having already sold nearly 85,000 copies to date.

The top 10 was rounded out by two of last week’s romantics offerings, both taking massive plunges with Endless Love (Universal) dropping to ninth place with $4.3 million with a total gross of $20.1 million. Last week’s only new non-remake, the fantasy romance Winter’s Tale, starring Colin Farrell and Russell Crowe, took tenth place with $2.1 million, similarly down 71% without having a Valentine’s Day bump.

This week, the Top 10 grossed an estimated $94 million, up about $10 million from last year, helped greatly by the fact that The LEGO Movie did nearly double last year’s #1, the comedy Identity Thief, which retook #1 over Dwayne Johnson’s action-thriller Snitch.

As far as the limited releases, Touchstone Pictures released a dubbed version of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated feature The Wind Rises into 21 theaters where it grossed $306 thousand, roughly $14.5 thousand per theater. Also, the period drama In Secret (Roadside Attractions), starring Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Felton, Oscar Isaac and Jessica Lange, only made $275 thousand despite opening in 266 theaters, which is about a thousand per theater.